Next week, AIPAC, the powerful pro-Israel lobby group is sending something like 250 Jewish leaders and activists to the Hill, to lobby Congress to go to war against Syria, to stop Iran.

In just a matter of about a week, Secretary of State, John Kerry has done what the far right has been trying to do for nearly six years. He has utterly destroyed the man. As a world leader, unless something remarkable happens and he does a Bill Pullman Independence Day heroic action, the man is finished. It’s all over. His duck is lamed. It’s over. I don’t see how he can even accomplish his domestic agenda now. If you think this pleases me, far from it. I’m heart sick. I’m watching a man fall apart in front of me. He looks old, battered, exhausted, and heart-sick. Now, no matter what he does, especially when it comes to Syria, it will be wrong. He will look like a weak failure. Part of the problem, let’s be honest, was David Cameron’s absolutely disastrous outing in Parliament last week. Cameron made a fool of himself pleading for permission to go to war. His political career has been dealt a dastardly blow. Now, we’re watching the same thing happen here, to a man who does not deserve this fate.

Let’s be honest here. One of the problems Barack Obama is facing is the same thing his predecessor faced. It is the same fate that has engulfed David Cameron. It ruined Tony Blair. They are good men. That’s one of the problem with good men such as these. They can be terribly damaged, because of their goodness. It’s so much easier when someone in power is glib, superficial, narcissistic, and almost a borderline psychopath. They just don’t give a damn. They are all that matters.

CBS News

Barack Obama has been pushed into a corner by John Kerry, who seems to be wanting to make this his private little war. I don’t like using the Daily Caller, but I am this time. We get just a hint at what has been going on, behind the scenes, with Kerry taking the lead, pushing Obama into the background. This is Kerry’s war. He wants it enough to be terribly disingenuous, and strangely ambitious, willing to walk all over Obama and crush him. One gets the impression that Obama doesn’t want to go to war. Kerry and the press want him to.

What is going on with John Kerry. Why would he give out false information about the use of chemical weapons? I can think of a few reasons, which I detailed yesterday. Yesterday, I detailed the history of chemical weapons use, and the duplicity of John Kerry.

He did not do his homework and sincerely did not know about the history of chemical weapon’s use.

He knew, but edited the history to suit his purposes.

He deliberately lied about the history of chemical use.

All three reasons, as far as I’m concerned, is enough for the man to be given the boot. Not only is he not looking after the best interests in this country, but he’s basically making Barack Obama look truly bad, incompetent. Things are so bad, now that Pope Francis is getting involved. Like 80% of the American people, he does not consider this a just war. Like just about everyone I’ve talked to, the Holy Father apparently fears the results. Even Cardinal Dolan is against this one. The Pope has even written to Vladimir Putin. H has tweeted “War never again! Never again war!” and “How much suffering, how much devasttion, how much pain has the use of arms carried in its wake.” “We want in our society, torn apart by divisions and conflict, that peace break out!” “With utmost firmness I condemn the use of chemical weapons.” “With all my strength, I ask each party in the conflict not to close themselves in solely on their own interests. #prayforpeace.”

Evidently, John Kerry, who has usurped the position as ‘leader’ of the ‘free’ world doesn’t care about peace. He doesn’t mind at anywhere from 15-25% of the so called ‘rebels’ are, at his own admission, either al Qaeda or those associated with them.

NBC News

According to NBC, one military official said Kerry’s numbers are off by half. He thinks it is more like 50% of the rebels do not have our best interests at hand. There are over seventy different groups fighting. No wonder Barack Obama is vacillating. In June, we learned that militants from over 25 countries have joined the rebels in Syria. According to Business Insider, we told the rebels to kill off the radicals before we would help them.

I gather these are Kerry’s numbers:

Business Insider

According to the Daily Caller (which I dislike) John Kerry asked the Members of the House to read an op-ed by 26-year-old Elizabeth O’Bagy, who is an analyst for the Institute for the Study of War. She is also a paid lobbyist for the Syrian Emergency Task Force. She is the one pushing the idea that most of the Syrian rebels are ‘moderate’. On the other hand, Ruth Sherlock is a long-time journalist who covered the Arab Spring for the Daily Telegraph from Egypt, Libya, and Syria. She was awarded Young Journalist of the Year at the 2012 British Press Awards. She takes the opposite view from O’Bagy. Her coverage of the crises in Syria show that the Christian population is being increasingly harassed by Islamic extremists, not those gentle moderate freedom fighters.

US News

So, we get around to what Bloomberg calls the Sulky Summit. Putin seriously damaged Obama, who was on the defensive. From the news clips, Obama looked terrible. In fact, Obama looks like a man who could be pushed into starting World War III. Why the hell do we need to go to war with Russia? This is stupid. We’ve never before even fired a missile over thousands of people being murdered by chemical weapons. Why is this so special?

Politicol News News

I’m sorry, this is abjectly stupid. We are being lead into a war that will be horrific, simply because John Kerry says so. I’m sorry, but is increasingly disgusting, as is the posting of the photos of the children of war. If the rebels are so great, and such freedom fighters, why do they hide behind children? Why do they fight around homes and cities? Why not stop cowing like animals and fight in the open, or away from an area where innocent people are going to die? Sure, war is hell, as they say, but I’m getting sick and tired of our country backing ‘freedom fighters’ that are just as bad as those who are in power.

Syria is a civil war. We stay the hell out of civil wars. Evidently John Kerry, who appears to be the one in charge, at the White House is thumbing his nose at Congress. He can do anything he wants. Even if 80% of us say we don’t want this thing, enter John Kerry. He wants war. I guess, in order to placate him, we go to war, and destroy even more people.

The Pink Flamingo is still a Neo-Con. I am far from an isolationist. I also know when something is absolutely futile and abjectly insane. This is. And no, I detest being on the same side as Rand Paul. It is becoming increasingly clear that the Obama Administration is determined to go to war, no matter how many of us object to the stupidity of it all. There is NOTHING to be gained, and everything to be lost, including a decent man’s legacy. If Obama goes ahead with this stupidity, the consequences, which will be horrific, will be on his head, and that of John Kerry. I can’t even conceptualize this sort of thing happening. There is no need for it. We’ve NEVER taken such action From what Samantha Powers, says, they plan to thumb their nose at the UN, and take the US down a road to ruin.

“…On Thursday, after it became clear that Russia would block any move by the 15-member United Nations Security Council to take military action in Syria, Ms. Power said that the council had failed to fulfill its obligation to safeguard international peace and hold nations accountable for the use of weapons of mass destruction.

“Unfortunately, for the past 2½ years, the system devised in 1945 precisely to deal with threats of this nature did not work as it is supposed to,” she said. “It did not protect peace and security for the hundreds of Syrian children who were gassed to death on Aug. 21.”…”

Foreign Policy magazine, which has been the leading apologist for the Syrian rebels, says that the dramatic video that is causing problems for the Administration, is not recent. They quote the Syrian Support Group, which says they aren’t connected with the incident. What did Kerry say about it?

“...Kerry, appearing Thursday night on MSNBC’s All In With Chris Hayes, was at pains to minimize the video’s influence on the debate in Washington and beyond. “No,” he insisted when Hayes asked if the killers in the video “become, by definition, our allies.” Kerry argued: “In fact, I believe that those men in those videos are disadvantaged by an American response to the chemical-weapons use because it, in fact, empowers the moderate opposition.” Kerry added that “they are not part of the opposition that is being supported by our friends and ourselves.”…”

Have you noticed that Kerry specializes in double-talk. He uses an ‘expert’, a paid lobbyist for the Syrian Rebels, as his source on the number of real bad guys there are in Syria. Evidently, according to NRO, the reason John Kerry is now the spokesperson for the ‘freedom fighters’ is because they are so busy fighting for freedom, they can’t speak for themselves.

The problem is you get two versions of the story. Assad is using Hezbollah to help retake territory from the rebels. He is losing so badly, with so many defections, that is the reason he used chemical weapons. Then, we get the other side, that many of the rebels are really bad guys who are going to turn the country into an extremist nation when Assad is overthrown.

Well…. Just what if… John Kerry’s ‘expert’ that 26 year old alleged Neo-Con, was the one who managed to, as a lobbyist, keep the Obama Administration from designating the very ‘rebels’ and freedom fighters we are alleged to want to help, from being classified as al-Qaeda? That sort of thickens the plot.

Jammie Wearing Fools

“…Certainly this raises questions about why the Wall Street Journal didn’t disclose O’Bagy’s affiliation (questions that led to embarrassing display of sniping on Twitter among foreign policy journalists), but the issue here seems like it goes beyond the sort of thing appropriate for an op-ed page ethics panel. Specifically: Why did John McCain and John Kerry treat the words of a spokeswoman for rebels (who works for a group funded by American and British governments) as if they were spoken without an agenda? O’Bagy’s affiliation doesn’t make her wrong, but it does provide a reason to skeptical of her assessment—and to be skeptical of McCain and Kerry for citing her oped as evidence in favor of attacking Syria.

On the one hand, if McCain and Kerry didn’t know she was aligned with rebels, it makes them appear to be easily manipulated dilettantes who don’t know as much as they claim about the situation at hand. Bolstering that theory: When Kerry cited O’Bagy (video at top of post) not only mispronounced her name, but misspelled it as B-A-G-L-Y. I guess that’s in the ballpark of what her name really is, but it suggests he actually has no clue who she was, even though he was citing her op-ed as if it were a carefully vetted intelligence document.

On the other hand, it’s possible that McCain and/or Kerry were aware of O’Bagy’s ties, and yet chose not disclose them, a scenario which would be equally alarming, albeit in a different way.

I can’t claim to be an expert on Syrian rebels, but it’s pretty clear there’s at least good reason to doubt that they are in fact the shining examples of moderation that McCain and Kerry made them out to be. If McCain and Kerry want to win the argument that the rebels are worth helping, they’re going to need to do better than they’ve done so far….”

Why are we even bothering to help these people? Even Co-President John Kerry can’t keep everyone straight. He admits that upward of a quarter of the so-called freedom fighters is a ‘bad’ guy. That’s acceptable to him? It’s not to me. According to the Dallas Morning News, the terrorists linked to the ‘freedom fighters’ are going to cut ties to Islamic Extremists – now.

So, President Obama has ordered the Pentagon to expand its list of targets. And, to advertise it? Why? Maybe he’s playing chicken, and a head game. I pray, I seriously pray that he is. If not, the world is in deep shit. I truly hate this. It disturbs me the way the far right is now going after Obama. It is tragic. Let’s be honest here, I think Obama is now in the same position GWB was, in Iraq. Someone is lying to him.

According to Larry Johnson, this is a pre-planned incident to draw the US into a major war. According to Johnson, it was planned and executed by the Saudis and the Turks. There is STILL no medical evidence that the agent was sarin. I’ve read this elsewhere, that the victims did not react the way they would have, if we were dealing with sarin.

All you need to do is look at a current photo of Obama and see how he is being tortured by this. He is pathetic. It is as though we are watching him being diminished, right before our very eyes. It is quite obvious that John McCain has been very calculatingly led down the prim rose path by a very well paid lobbyist for the rebel ‘freedom forces’. Like Doc Holiday and Wyatt Earp, where John McCain goes, Lindsey follows. Obama is obviously being influenced by Samantha Powers and John Kerry.

The problem here, is what is John Kerry’s agenda? He’s doing great harm not only to the country, but to Barack Obama. He is manipulating and being deceptive. Why? Is he deliberately trying to destroy Barack Obama? Right now, it’s quite obvious that is what is happening. He’s being arrogant and condescending to Obama.

It is as if John Kerry is now the Co-President of the United States of America.

Why?

Who is he working for?

If this agenda continues, it is going to ruin Joe Biden’s chances for 2016. It’s going to do serious harm to Hillary Clinton. Unfortunately, it is going to embolden Rand Paul, who is the last thing we need in this country. There is though, one possibility. By destroying Barack Obama, John Kerry sets himself up for 2016.

I started out giving him the benefit of the doubt. I don’t any more. After the information I’ve managed to dig up the past two days, I have no doubt Kerry is not being honest. He is in the process of dragging us into a possible world war where we are the enemy, the aggressor, and the bad guys. When something like that happens, the nation who is the aggressor is the big loser. I still find it almost unimaginable that because of Kerry’s bellicose agenda, Vladimir Putin is the defender of the faith, the calm, protector of freedom and this country is morphing into everything we despise.

I’m part of that 80%.

Are you?

The Pentagon has been told to expand the target list. This is just not a little surgical strike, this is an all out, invasion of a country. We will be invading without UN authority, against basically every other civilized nation except for France (what a joke) and Israel. In short, we will be doing Israel’s bidding. We will become their lap dogs, much like Darth Vadar was the fall guy for the Evil Emperor. I read somewhere that someone described it as nothing less than when Hitler invaded Poland.

“...Two things should be borne in mind on these reports: the first is that Israel has had a long-standing goal of the break-up or weakening of Syria which is the last remaining firmly anti-Israeli Arab state. (the rationale behind this policy was laid out by Edward Luttwak in the OpEd section of the August 24, 2013 New York Times). It also explains why Israel actively had sought “regime change” in Iraq. The second consideration is that Israeli intelligence has also been known to fabricate intercepts as, for example, it did during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.

So, unless or until more conclusive evidence is available, the request by Mr. Ban (“U.N. seeks more time for its inspectors,”International Herald Tribune, August 29, 2013) for more time appears to be prudent. Despite what Messrs Biden and Kerry have said, I believe a court would conclude that the case against the Syrian government was “not proven.”…”

We become the monsters.

When this happens, everything that is great and wonderful about this nation is lost.

The Pink Flamingo Recommends

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.”--Sinclair Lewis

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

SJ Reidhead (aka The Pink Flamingo) is a writer based in New Mexico. The author of two published novels, both westerns: Dust Devil and The Second Mrs. Earp and two published works of non-fictions: TRAVESTY: Frank Waters Earp Agenda Exposed and A Church for Helldorado, Endicott Peabody's 1882 Tombstone Diary. One of the leading authorities on the life of Wyatt Earp and Tombstone during the Earp years, she is currently writing a series of murder mysteries set in modern day Tombstone. The author is also working on a book about fashion in the Wild West. When complete, there will be over 2100 unpublished antique photographs dating from 1855-1910.

The author's work has appeared in Wild West, True West, Blogcritics, and The Tombstone Times. Recently the author has had to deal with a father in Stage 4 Alzheimer's Disease. This is leading to a book dealing with the frustrations of dealing with the frustrations of the disease, finance, legal, health-care, and things no one bothers telling families about it.

SJ Reidhead has been involved in Republican politics since she was 'a little kid'. During the Reagan years she was a lobbyist working with various non-profit organizations who were attempting to salvage NASA and the American space program after the disastrous Carter years. Unfortunately, because of the libertarian take-over of the GOP, and the rise of the Tea Parties, as the Republican Party becomes more and more extreme and marginalized, it is impossible to remain loyal to the GOP. The Pink Flamingoremains GOP in order to try to bring the party back to what it once was. I fear it is an impossible task.

The Pink Flamingo went on line on October 4, 2005, after the author realized "normal" Republicans were being marginalized as the extreme far right attempts to become the new normal. In November, 2012, The Pink Flamingo, for the first time ever, voted for a Democrat, Barack Obama. Normal will never again apply to the GOP.

THE PINK FLAMINGO STORY

It started out as a joke. During the seven years I worked with the girls of my parish, leading a youth group, one of the things that I stressed were manners. Part of having manners, the way I see it, is to know how to set a proper table, host a party, cater it, and clean up afterward. I was fortunate enough to have a group of very talented girls in my youth group. They learned how to plan for, and execute large church functions, very properly. During one such function I noticed there were several incredibly tacky pink flamingos sitting on the table. Knowing the girls were up to something, I said nothing. A few months later they did the same thing at a function I was hosting at my home. I said nothing. They had a birthday party for me. More pink flamingos appeared - and a joke was born.

Thanks to the girls, all of whom are now grown, I have a collection of pink flamingos. It has become an ongoing joke. When I began working on my political blog, I realized the only possibly title was The Pink Flamingo!